


Devil Within

by Destinee Zara (LadyDestineeZara)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Blood and Gore, Demon Deals, Disturbing Themes, Illusions, M/M, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, just to play it safe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 08:22:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15747915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyDestineeZara/pseuds/Destinee%20Zara
Summary: Keith Kogane was just a young priest like many others, who was praying for rain.God didn't answer his prayers.Something else did.





	Devil Within

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: This story haven't been officially betaed.  
> English is not my first language, so pardon any mistakes. 
> 
> Now, without any more ado, to the story

“He will not listen your prayers, kid.” a voice said from the church pews behind Keith.

The young priest stood up from where he was praying and turned around. The small church was dark, save for one single candle that Keith had lighted to pray. The door was still closed and he was positive that it hadn’t opened while he was praying. He looked around tense and restless, trying to look brave in case it was a thief or someone like that.

“Who’s there?” he demanded “Show yourself!”

A hand waved in the dark. A lone figure was sitting on the pews in the back of the church.

“My, My… Aren’t you a little edgy, little priest?”

The voice was manly and suave, in a deep tone. It made Keith feel a little dizzy, but he was good in controlling himself.

“How did you get here?”

“I was already here when you arrived.”

“That’s impossible. I haven’t seen you.”

“Maybe you weren’t paying attention. I was always here.” the shadow shrugged.

Being the only one on the light was becoming unsettling for some reason.

“Well, come to the light.”

The figure chuckled.

“Not yet, little priest. Not yet. I want to enjoy the darkness a little bit more.”

“Who can enjoy this kind of thing?” Keith asked with a frown and a shiver running down his spine. He still was trying to look strong.

Another chuckle from the dark figure.

“You’ll be surprised, that’s for sure.”

Keith stared at the figure frowning disapprovingly.

“Be my guest to stay, but don’t disturb my prayers.”

He was ready to ignore the stranger and go back to his praying, but the shadow figure interrupted him before he could kneel before the altar.

“He won’t listen. Do you really think you’re the first priest of this forgotten land to pray for a little rain? This land has been dry for at least one hundred years and people still insist on staying and pretty little priests like you still insist on praying. All fools if you ask me.”

“Don’t blaspheme on His house.” Keith said glaring and clenching his fists.

“So you will still let your prayers fall into deaf ears.” the shadow said with curiosity “That’s interesting and stupid. Mostly interesting, though. Peculiar even…”

“He _is_ listening.” Keith said annoyed “He just have a plan that we can’t understand.”

The man in the shadows studied the young priest. Keith felt naked under that intense stare.

“Your devotion is almost touching, but a waste. His plan will only bring pain and suffering to humankind.”

“God loves all of us.”

The figure laughed. The sound was as suave as his voice, and yet it made shivers run down Keith’s spine, like cold tendrils of fear.

“I was wrong. Your devotion’s amusing if anything else, little priest.”

Stubbornly, the clerical stayed with a steady expression and a steady posture (even with the thrill of fear he was feeling).

“Have you entered my church just to mock my faith?” he asked  still annoyed.

“Oh, no, dearie. I was already here when you started to pray. I just feel like interrupting tonight. I’m feeling bored out of my mind.”

“Oh, really?” Keith asked sarcastically “Well, excuse me, but I’ll no longer be a toy for your amusement.”

“You prefer to pray for a rain that won’t come? I’m offended.”

“God _will_ send rain.” a pause “Well, eventually. Whenever it fits his plans.”

The man in the shadows changed his posture and seemed even more interested in Keith.

“What if I told you that His plan is to make this land become dry and full of death? What if I told you that he wants the people who live here to suffer, no matter how innocent they are?”

The priest crossed his arms.

“You’re wrong. He loves all of us and he doesn’t want us harm.”

“No, little priest. You’re the one who is wrong. He simply couldn’t care less about what humans or any other creature feels. All He care about is his damned plan, a divine plan that will grind and gore humankind like meat and He won't feel a single damn thing about it.” the stranger was angry “You, little priest, is just cattle to Him.

“Doesn’t that makes you cattle too?” Keith inquired the man in the shadows in a sharp tone.

The figure barked a laugh. Keith could swear that he saw yellow eyes for a moment.

“Absolutely not.” he sat comfortably on pew as if he owned the whole place “I’m a wolf. I prey on his creation.”

“So what makes you better than him if both of you only want to destroy?” the priest asked glaring at the stranger.

“I never said I was better. I just said I’m no cattle. But since you brought that up, yes, little priest, I’m better than Him. I’m better than Him, not because I have such a big and elaborated plan. I’m better than Him because I enjoy the pain and suffering that I cause, while He is indifferent.”

The priest could feel the hair at his nape standing up in fear.

“Who the hell are you?” Keith asked gritting his teeth and holding the only object (other than the lighted candle) that he could use as a weapon, the old silver censer.

The stranger barked a laugh again and stood up.

“‘Who the hell are you?’ what a weird way for a priest to phrase a question.” he walked slowly towards the little light of the candle “And yet, what an accurate way to ask that from me.”

The stranger was taller than Keith by at least a foot and seemed to be just a few years older, had large shoulders and a strong physique. He had square face with a sharp and handsome jaw. A scar crossed his face from cheek to cheek, passing over his nose. He was wearing gentleman’s clothes (tailcoat, waistcoat and everything) in purple and an elegant top hat. His hair was black save from one white patch over his forehead. His cheeks were pink with health. He had monolid eyes that had a brown color and great intensity. The perfect description of a sinful face.

But his most prominent feature were his long black horns on the top of his head, flanking the top hat.

Keith’s heart beat fast in fear. His hand automatically went to the crucifix that he wore. He stretched his arm, using the small cross like a shield, trying to banish the demon.

“Devil, be gone!”

The demon chuckled.

“You have faith, Keith, I have to admit that.” he picked the priest’s stretched hand and kissed it, ignoring the crucifix completely. He smirked “Pay the devil his due, so to speak.”

Keith didn’t know nor did care about how the demon knew his name. He just reacted automatically. His other hand used the censer to hit the demon on the head with all the strength on his left arm.

The demon’s head turned to the side due to the impact and his top hat flew away from his head. But other than that, he didn’t have a single scratch.

Then he started to laugh.

He was laughing with his mouth fully open, exposing his sharp teeth, making his face have a animalistic grin and making his eyes glow in an ominous yellow in the dark of the church. The laugh echoed on the walls, cruel and high-pitched. It made the priest’s blood run cold and made the hair at the back of his neck stand up.

Just as sudden as it have started, the demon stopped laughing.

However he still looked like a mixture of man and animal.

His right hand became black with tendrils of purple.

In a fluid movement, he tore Keith’s chest apart with that cursed hand, sticking his arm through the priest’s thorax, breaking bones and tearing flesh, and emerging on the other side holding Keith’s heart on his bloodied hand.

“See, Keith? It is not fun when people surprise attack you.” and he kissed the bloodied heart on his hand, holding the priest on the process. He still grinned, a too large and too full of extra sharp teeth grin.

Keith coughed blood.

Oh, God! He was going to die!

He couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t feel his limbs.

The only things he could still feel were his mind shutting down and a great fear that he had never felt before.

However, before he could die, the demon retracted his arm.

Keith’s heart was back on place, beating like crazy. The blood was gone, his bones were unbroken, his flesh was restored, his sensations were back and he could breathe again. He coughed, as if his lungs were getting used to air for the first time. His body was cold and he still had that great fear.

Keith collapsed on the floor.

The demon chuckled. His eyes kept glowing in yellow and his teeth were still sharp

“Awww… I kissed your heart! Isn’t that romantic, Keith?” he asked with misplaced playfulness, like a cruel child.

The proof that the last moment existed was on the lips of the demon: a single mark of a kiss painted in blood, like a gore lipstick.

Keith tried not to think about that.

“How did you get here, devil?” he asked still on the floor, and trying to be as brave as he could (even if his hands and lips were trembling).

The demon smirked and licked his bloodied lips.

“I told you: I was already here. You were the one who entered second.”

“This is the house of God!”

The devil shrugged.

“He never cared anyways. I can come and go as I please.”

Keith stood up in shaking legs.

“You have no power here!”

“As I have already proven with the kiss that I delivered to your own heart, I do have power. He couldn’t care less about me or about you, little priest.”

“But you didn’t kill me.” he accused, as if that was the ace on his hand “God protected me!”

“No, he didn’t. I chose to let you live.”

“Why on earth would you do such a thing?”

Another smirk.

“Because I have a small proposition for you.”

“The answer is no.” Keith said firmly.

“You don’t even want to know what this is about?”

“No.”

The demon put his hand over where his heart was supposed to be, feigning being hurt.

“You wound me, dear Keith.”

Keith clenched his fists.

“Good.”

The devil chuckled again.

“Oh, but what if I tell you that I can bring regular rain to this land for the next ten years?” he asked innocently.

Keith just glared at the dark creature.

Regular rain would be the answer to his most frequent prayers.

He was tempted.

The devil knew he was tempted.

He smirked.

“I can deliver proper rain on the right seasons for the next decade, making everybody happy. Wouldn’t that be a delight, Keith, my pretty little priest?”

A fearsome shiver run down Keith’s spine again.

“And what would your price be? My soul?” he inquire in a challenge-like way.

The devil shrugged.

“Souls are boring. What would I do with your soul after you’re dead anyway? Your precious God can do whatever he want with it after I have finished. No, dearest Keith. My price is much more terrestrial and mundane than what you’re thinking.”

The priest just kept glaring at the dark creature.

He took that as an invitation to continue.

“My price” he corned Keith against the altar, like an insistent and cruel lover “My price is…” he whispered at the young priest’s ear “that you let me fuck you every single night for the next whole year.”

Keith pushed him away and walked briefly, fully aware of the pair of yellow eyes on his back.

“You are lying.”

“About what?”

“The rain, God, this… this deal. About everything.”

“Why would I lie, Keith?”

“Because that’s what demons do: lie.” he turned around to glare again at the demon “Lie and corrupt God’s plan.”

“Oh, but I have no reason to lie to you, have I, dearie?”

“You could just want an easy shag.”

“My, my… such a strong language to such a pure priest.”

“Fuck you.”

The demon chuckled again, and for one second Keith feared that he would laugh maniacally one more time.

Fortunately or not, the dark creature continued talking.

“If I just wanted to shag you, I’d have just raped you over the altar. I’d have my sexual gratification and I’d relish all the pain I’d inflict you. I could even come to watch a mass or two, just for the pleasure of seeing you flinch and cower in fear.”

Keith could feel his face become pale and he was dizzy with fright.

The devil continued in a matter-of-fact businesslike tone.

“However, I want you to submit to me. I want you to be my personal pretty little whore for a whole year. I want you to obey every single command I give you and I want you to guiltily enjoy every time you cum under my ministrations. In exchange, I’m willing to make it rain regularly on the right seasons for 10 years. How about that?”

Keith embraced his own self to try to find some comfort.

“Why do you want me to submit to you so much?” he inquired again.

The devil shrugged.

“You reminds me of an angel I met a long time ago. An angel that I used to love. I ate his heart, and now I find out that I indeed miss him.” he shrugged again, as if he had just talked about a mild inconvenience,  like misplacing his house keys or a losing book. It was disconcerting to say the least “So, tell me, dearest Keith: do we have a deal?”

The priest took a deep breath.

He was tempted to take de deal, even with those disgusting conditions. His suffering could help hundreds of people and make living there more pleasant for everybody. However, the memory of having his heart being ripped out of his chest was still fresh and the prospect of breaking his celibacy vows, especially to with the demon, made his skin crawl.

Then something that the demon had said before stuck on his mind.

“You said that God’s plan to this land is to make it dry and full of death, correct?”

Another shrug.

“I might have said that. So think about my deal: ten years of full life! Imagine all the good crops! All the happiness that people would have!”

“And after that, what? Do we go back to dryness, death and unhappiness?”

“Better to have a moment of happiness than no happiness at all, don’t you think, dearest Keith? Besides, we can always renegotiate.”

“Renegotiate?”

“Ah, yes. I’d love to have your beautiful eyes on a jar.” he smiled like a predator full of teeth again and his yellow eyes had cruel gleam “Be my little whore for one year and allow me to pluck out your eyes and I can guarantee a whole century of good rain.”

“And after that? Dryness and death?”

Another chuckle.

“After that, the land will be a different land and I won’t need to do a thing anymore. Your sacrifice will make this land a paradise on earth.”

His deal was tempting just as the demon’s face.

Tempting like a sin.

“My answer is still no.” Keith said after steeling his will one more time “If God’s will is to make this land dry, so be it. I won’t take deals from nameless demons.”

For one second the priest believed that he would end up dead, that the devil would rip his heart out for good this time.

But the dark creature just chuckled.

“You will change your mind with time.”

“No I won’t.”

The demon smiled, than he started to giggle. The giggle turned at a small laugh that become that full horrendous laugh from before. However, this time it was higher, as if echoing around the whole church after had come from Hell itself.

The priest covered his ears in fear and pain.

Keith’s sole candle gave in and blown down.

But he didn’t stayed in the dark.

All the candles in the church lighted up at the same time with high purple and carmesim flames that smelled like sulphur.

Grotesque figures, malformed, abnormal poorly human shape figures, filled the church. Flying monkey men, chopped down frog women, headless monsters with mouths on their stomachs. Horned creatures full of teeth chewing small children. The children that weren’t dead were laughing with insane eyes and bloodied mouths. Giant snakes coil on the church pillars, laughing like all the others. Soldiers with exposed viscera and crudely sewed to other animals were hysterically losing their minds. Sulphur and an even more putrid smells (the smell of death and a putrid decomposition of flesh since the beginning of time) filled Keith’s nostrils and made his feel weaker. The sound was almost deafening him or making him go insane. All of them were laughing.

In the centre there was the demon that tempted Keith. His eyes were glowing in yellow, his nails were sharp, so were his teeth. His right hand had that black and purple dangerous color as if he was going to attack again.

The gentleman from hell, only missing his top hat.

The gentleman demon that would take Keith’s life.

Just as fast as everything had appeared, all the hybrid pestilence disappeared.

Keith hit his head at the altar.

He woke up scared. He was trembling, panting and sweating.

He was still kneeled in front of the altar of his small church. The only light was his small yellow candle and the only smell was dry air and holy incense.

He stood up and looked around warily, but he was completely alone on the small church.

A dream.

All that was just a dream.

He must have fallen asleep during his prayers.

Keith sighed with relief.

But before he could reassure himself one more time that all what he saw was just a result of his vivid imagination, he saw something on the church floor.

An elegant top hat.

The same one that he had knocked out of the demon’s head with the censer.

A shiver ran down his spine, and he could swear he heard the faint whisper of that unholy laugh.

Keith didn’t think twice: he picked the candle and the top hat and walked outside. Keith set the hat on fire and watched it burn.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t just do the same with his memories of that night.

On the very next day, he asked for a transference to another parish.

He never looked back, but that laugh haunted his nightmares until the end of his days.

**Author's Note:**

> Making off of this story:
> 
> Old readers might recognize this as a story that I wrote in 2015 for another fandom. I just really still love this story, even after all this time.   
> Also, I have a type of favourite character LOL  
> Keith fits the mold so perfectly, that the story fits him like a tailor-made glove. 
> 
> Anyway, about the demon (Shiro-Kuro-whatever): he's just bored and wanted to mess with a person that reminded him of and angel he knew. No grand plan or anything (I don't think he even pursued Keith after that episode). It seemed like the most evilish thing a demon could do IMO: something that harm others just out of pure boredom.
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you have enjoyed the story! Leave a kudo and a comment if you liked!
> 
> I'm on tumblr if you want to find me, [@wonderland-s-angel](http://wonderland-s-angel.tumblr.com/). 
> 
> Comments help me to get going, you know. Like, SERIOUSLY, they keep me going. I feed on them and I'm always hungry.
> 
> Bye-Bye o/


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